GUBBIO, a city of Italy, in the province of Umbria, about 20 miles N. of Perugio. Built along the western ledges of Monte Calvo, it shares alike in the grandeur of the mountains and the beauty of the plain, and its churches and palaces are brought into relief by the varying elevation of the site. Its ancient walls are still retained, and a certain mediaeval impress lingers about the place. Besides the cathedral of SS. Mariano and Giacomo, which consists of a small single nave and has a fine wheel window, San Francisco may be mentioned for the sake of the Conception by Fr. Signorelli, S. Agostino for a Madonna del Soccorso by Ottaviano Nelli, and S. Maria Nova with the same artist’s finest work—a votive fresco. Portions still remain of the old palace of the dukes of Urbino, built for Federigo by Luciano Lauranna. The palazzo municipale or del commune is a fine building erected between 1332 and 1346 after the designs of Matteo Giovanello, surnamed Gattapone.
Like Urbino and Faenza, Gubbio was formerly noted for its majolica, and it was Maestro Giorgio of Gubbio who rediscovered the ruby glazing for which this ware is remarkable. The manufacture has been resumed in modern times. In the neighbourhood of the town there is a great reservoir, La Bottacione, capable of containing 4,720,000 cubic feet of water. The population in 1871 was 5343 in the town and 22,757 in the commune. See Eugubine Tables....
The ancient Umbrian city of Ikuvio, Iguvium, or Eugubium occupied a site a little further out in the plain, to the left of the Via Flaminia. There is no mention of it in Roman history till the time of its subjugation. It was the place selected by the senate for the detention of the Illyrian king Gentius and his sons, and it was an important post in the wars betweeen Caesar and Pompey. The site is still marked by ruins, among which are those of the theatre discovered in 1789 by Ranghiasci (Discoprimento, Perugia, 1790), and further explored in 1863 {Boll, dell’ Institut. dicorr. arch., tom. xii.). It is also known that the town possessed temples to Diana, to Vesta, to Janus, to Pallas, and to the Sun and Apollo; and about 8 miles to the north was the celebrated temple of the Apennine Jove. The modern city was raised from the decay into which it had fallen by Otto the Great, whose charter may be seen in Reposati’s Della Zecca di Gubbio, Bologna, 1773. In 1155 it was besieged by Frederick Barbarossa, but was saved by the intercession of St Ubaldo. The temporal government of the town, which had previously been in the hands of the papal legate, the bishop, or the prior of the cathedral, was then placed by the emperor in the hands of the people. The first podesta appears in 1163. During the 14th century the prosperity of Gubbio was greatly advanced; it obtained jurisdiction over 130 castles, had great influence over the neighbouring cities, and possessed about 30,000 inhabitants. In 1384 it surrendered to Montefeltro, and thus became incorporated with the duchy of Urbino. An account of the school of painting which flourished in Gubbio in the 15th century is given by Ranghiasci Sebastiani in vol. iv. of the Siena edition of Vasari, and by Amico Ricci in his Memorie di belle arti in Gubbio, Bologna, 1831. Reference may also be made to Statuta civitatis Eugubii, Gerona, 1686; Greffolini, De gestis Eugubinorum ; Sarti, De Episcopis Eugubinis, 1755; and the Marchese Brancaleoni, “Dei palazzi municipali e pretorio di Gubbio’’ in Archivio Storico, 1867.
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